Sink or Swim
by BringOnTheShackles
Summary: Isabella Swan's father is sending her to America to marry Jacob Black, but the journey there involves alighting 'the ship of dreams'. Will it become her ship of dreams or nightmares? Will Bella sink or swim, on her voyage on the RMS Titanic.
1. Prologue

**Prologue.**

**London, March 1912.**

I placed one of the thin French cigarettes in the end of my holder and took a long drag, closing my eyes and attempting to drown out what I was hearing around me.

"Filthy habit," my father commented sharply.

I snapped open my eyes, taking in the scene around me.

We were in my father's study, my father standing behind his desk, by the window, me sitting in front of his desk and my mother pacing the floor behind me.

I ignored him and took another long inhale.

"Isabella!" my mother chastised me, my blatant disregard for the fact that my father did not approve of my smoking.

I continued to ignore what was happening around me, concentrating only on the burning end which was bright and warm in the dull room, the red fire contrasting with the cream and sage decorating scheme.

"Clearly your education was a complete waste of money if they could not teach you to obey a man's order, be it direct or indirect," my mother continued.

I would have rolled my eyes, but I cared so little about what she had to say that I did not consider it worth the effort.

"The problem with girls' schools is that they bring you up to be delicate and treat you as though you are. When I was at school if we went against what was being asked of us we were thrashed, by a master or an older boy," my father said tersely.

No one had ever laid a finger on me, at Roedean we had our own codes of conduct and our mistresses recognised this and left us to do as we wished. Roedean. How I missed my school days, the creamy white building with its red roof, the common room with its large bay windows, looking out in to the rolling countryside. I was back in London now, and the only country landscapes available where those inside the parks.

I missed the freedom I found at school, away from my parents. Of course I was surrounded by cousins and friends and was by no means anonymous, but none of them dared to question any decisions I took, as my interfering mother always did, before she ran off to inform my father all about it.

I was almost 18 now, and back home. Back home for as long as it would take to marry me off. Which, the way my mother talked, was always going to be far too long, no matter what length of time it actually was.

According to her I was insufferable. I was not, I was just unwilling to accept any of the men she insisted on introducing. At one point she had gone so far as to recommend I marry my own cousin, Lord Michael Newton, to which even my father had been opposed.

"Now, Isabella," my father began, pacing the room, "It seems as though we have exhausted every avenue here in attempting to set you up with a suitable husband and it is time, we feel, to look outside of London."

I dared to hope for a moment, did this perhaps mean they were looking at some of the country lords? My father was a steel tycoon and would have preferred industry money to marry industry money, but still... My mother on the other hand, came from a long line of duchesses and dames, and she just wanted to make sure I didn't marry anybody who was too 'new money'. It all made for very confusing ideas of who was suitable.

"So we are going to America."

I looked up at my mother, properly looked at her for the first time since this monotonous conversation about my refusal to marry and do my duty as a daughter and a woman had begun.

"America?"

"Yes. We have connections in New York, and the Black family are old friends of ours, their son Jacob is around your age."

I narrowed my eyes at my father "Around my age?"

"He's a year younger than you."

Younger than me! Men were an infantile immature specimen at the best of times, but for him to be younger than me!

"Father! This is really too much!"

"Be quiet Isabella, we have no one left in London, since you have rejected them all. You no longer get a choice in the matter, you _will_ accept Jacob Black as your husband."

I blew smoke in his direction and stood up, turning to leave, "I will do no such thing," I said coldly, annunciating each word as my elocution teacher had always taught us to do.

"Oh yes you will, you will not disgrace the name of this family any longer Isabella Swan, you will make a good marriage to an upstanding young gentleman and that is final!" my father thundered.

"What if I don't want to marry him?"

There was a pause.

"You will be disowned," my mother said quietly, a note of finality ringing in her tone.

I felt ringing in my ears. They couldn't disown me, I was their only daughter!

"You have left us no choice," she continued, her tones clipped and cold, "You have not married and you are about to turn 18. You are not even engaged. Surely you must see our position!"

"And surely, mother, you must see mine? That I wish to find love!"

"Marriage first and love comes after it!" she shrieked at me.

I turned to leave but my father intervened, "Isabella Marie Swan, sit back down now."

It was his 'do not argue with me or else' voice. One I never dared challenge.

"If you find Jacob Black to be truly un-marriable then I will not force you, daughter. But I do command that you go to America and try. If nothing else it will be a good trip for you, and an excuse for some new hats."

He smiled tightly at me and I made a brief attempt to smile back. At least I was not forced to marry him, but, in reality, I may as well have been. Stuck in America with no one but my own family and these mysterious Blacks.

As if reading my thoughts my father continued, "You and your mother will travel to Southampton at the end of this week and stay with your cousin Jessica, who may chose to accompany you on your voyage. I shall join you in America later."

That was something, at least I'd have Jessica with me, if she chose to accompany me. She would chose to though, Jessica would never pass on an opportunity to travel to America.

I gritted my teeth.

"I suppose I'd better go start organising my packing then."

"Good idea," my father smiled, "It will be exciting for you, you're going to be travelling on the maiden voyage of some hugely famous new ship, supposed to be the biggest yet or something along those lines, I'm not entirely sure, but there's a huge hype around it."

I wracked my brains, but could think of nothing. A hype would attract Jessica more than me.

"I forget the name," my mother added to the conversation and I turned to glare at her, I didn't wish her input on anything, "Something to do with the size of the ship, but it's slipped my mind entirely."

A flash of inspiration hit me, I had read about this ship somewhere actually, "The Titanic?" I asked my father.

"Yes, exactly," my father grinned broader than ever, "Now, off to pack Bella."

I stood without answering, my gaze as icy as I could muster. I was not happy and I would not pretend to be.

"That's a good girl," my mother cooed, and I glared at her. I was not five years old and I didn't appreciate being spoken to as such.

I blew smoke from my cigarette at her one last time and swept from the room, holding my nose in the air.


	2. Chapter 1

**Chapter 1**

**April 9****th****, 1912.**

**Edward's POV**

"TOP BUNK!" Jasper shouted as soon as he'd pulled open the door of the cabin that we'd both be living in for our voyage.

I grinned at my usually so quiet brother's outburst, and placed my bags on the bed below him.

"So when do we report for duty?" I asked.

"Well Alice and the passengers come on tomorrow, so I think we've just got to head to the meeting this afternoon and then we have until tomorrow to do what we like."

"So I take it you'll be fucking off into South Hampden then to see her after the meeting?" I asked, lighting a cigarette and inhaling, laughing at the same time.

"Hey, bro, I have control!" Jasper said, stealing the cigarette off me.

"Not with Alice you don't!" I swiped at the cigarette, Jasper quickly dodging me so that I missed by a mile. He was always good with strategy and winning, even with things as trivial as cigarettes, he was always cool, level headed and in control. Logical.

Mary Alice made him lose it though. He'd lost everything to her, heart, soul and control. He'd have done anything for her, including the moving to America that we were currently undertaking. Not that she abused it. Mary Alice and Jasper had been in love, destined for each other, for as long as I could remember.

She lived near us and was in my class at school. Jasper being two years older was not, but he'd come wait outside my class under the pretence of giving me my lunch so that he could pull her hair every day. And then one day Colin Dartmoor pulled her hair and Jasper had punched his lights out, saying that he was the only one who was allowed to pull Alice's hair, and the rest was well known local history. She had walked to and from school every day with us since then, Jasper would leave early to wait outside her door in the morning rather than waiting on me anymore and instead of begrudging Alice the attention of my brother I accepted it and the three of us became one small group. Admittedly I was probably a bit of a third wheel, but they tried not to show it, inviting me with them, suggesting things we could all do together. I had had my fair share of girls, and even a few women. But nothing like they had with each other. Nothing serious.

And then Alice's father had decided to go back to America, where the Brandons were originally from. And Jasper had decided to chase her because "over my dead body will I leave Alice to marry some Yank. She's going to marry me and no one but me."

When Jasper got an idea in his head there was no point in arguing with him, and it only took him a day before he had a plan sorted and being put into place. I'd found out about it when I got shoved down at the kitchen table and made to fill out part two of an application form that I had never been aware of filling part one out and sending away. But still I wouldn't complain, we had jobs on the RMS Titanic and even if it hadn't been what I wanted to do I'd have done it for Jasper, he had always sacrificed his time for me and since our mother refused to let Jasper go alone, I owed him. Esme thought that the whole thing was ridiculously romantic. I thought life in America had to be better, or at least more interesting, than small town life.

And that pretty much brought us up till now. Jasper had asked Alice to marry him and she'd agreed, though her father was going to take some coaxing before he'd agree. Alice's family didn't particularly want her, Mr Brandon preferred his boys, but nor were they prepared to see her make a marriage that didn't benefit their family status.

We weren't an unrespectable family. Our mother had been a teacher before she married my father and had us, and my father was a doctor. In actual fact, we should have been one of the most well off families in town, but Carlisle's ability to make money was hindered by his desire to 'help people'. He worked mostly for the church, helping what I always thought must have been some of the poorest and most downtrodden people in the world, and the church gave him what they could, but that wasn't much. He wouldn't have accepted any more anyway. He would have made more money if he had opened his own practise, but he wouldn't do it. My father was too principaled for his own good sometimes but if he hadn't been I suppose he wouldn't have been as admirable.

"So we're working in first class?" I asked Jasper, who was reading over the information sheet whilst I attempted to decipher it upside down.

"Yep, working with all the spoilt brats," he laughed at me.

I grimaced. I wasn't known for my patience. And we were basically to cater their every whim, no matter what it was, and I was sure most of them would seem ridiculous. One benefit of having always been close to Jasper and constantly tagging round after him was that my maturity was beyond my years; the downside was that I couldn't tolerate immaturity from anyone.

I grabbed the end of the cigarette back off Jasper and was savouring the last few draws of it when two men came through the cabin door.

They knocked to announce their presence, but came in without waiting for an answer. That usually would have irritated me, but they looked decent enough. Besides from which my line of thought went along the "we're all in this together" variety, so there was little point in starting fights. And besides from that one of the two was about the size of me and Jasper put together.

"Alright," the smaller of the two smiled widely round at us, "I'm Frederick, Frederick Fleet, lookout. This is Emmett," he shook our hands as he spoke, before motioning to the man behind him.

"Emmett McCarty," the man said, nodding at each of us in turn.

"I'm Edward Cullen, this is my brother Jasper."

"Our captain's name is also Edward. Captain Edward Smith," Frederick nodded enthusiastically at me, "Good name that. So you two are brothers? You look a bit alike?" He was a friendly, chatty sort, almost like a small, yappy dog. But a nice enough natured fellow, from what I could see.

"Yeah," Jasper answered, offering nothing more. Jasper was even more reserved than me, and didn't really open up to anyone until he felt he'd got the full measure of them.

"So are you two related?" I asked politely. From our end I would be the one who would need to push the conversation. It would have seemed rude not to, since the two men had made the effort to come introduce themselves.

"No, no! Well, not yet anyway. My sister Rosalie, Rose, is Emmett's girl," Frederick answered me, almost bouncing as he talked, "She's here too somewhere, she's been assigned second class, got her the job myself. So what about you two? Where you working?"

"First class," I answered, searching for something to keep the conversation flowing, "So you're a Lookout you said?"

"Yep, yep, that's right. Came here from having worked on the Oceanic. And Emmett's working in second class too, same as Rose."

A bell sounded.

"That's the signal that it's time for the meeting," Frederick grinned, looking as though he could clap his hands together in delight.

"Well, let's go get this over with," Emmett sighed, stepping out into the corridor and stretching.

My brother and I were fairly quiet by nature, keeping ourselves to ourselves but without wishing to seem rude. Judging by Emmett's lack of speech but kind eyes he was the same, not a huge talker but not because he was anti-social, just keeping himself to himself. Like Jasper and I though, he probably loosened up a bit once you got to know him.

A girl emerged from a cabin a little down the corridor and looked down our way, seeming to have located us by Frederick's chatter. She looked nothing like him and did not utter a word so obviously was not a talker like him, but as Emmett flung his arm casually over her shoulder and she reached up to talk the hand that fell just above her breast, I presumed that this was Rose.

If you had shown a picture of Alice to a child and then asked them to draw a picture of the opposite of Alice, you'd have had Rose. Alice was small – tiny even, both in height and build, talkative, outgoing and brunette and Rose was tall, blond, cold eyed and reserved, built with more curves than should have been allowed on a woman. Both were beautiful, and Emmett's face since he had laid eyes on Rose had softened and almost looked like it glowed with the feeling he had for her. It was the same way Jasper's face looked when he was focussed on Alice.

Even as we entered the busy meeting room it was not the first time I felt very alone.


End file.
